One challenge facing dentists while treating patients is that presented by cavities that are found at an interproximal location. In order to remove the decayed portion of a tooth with a drill and to fill the tooth with a filler material, it often is necessary to temporarily separate the adjacent teeth in order to provide adequate space to allow for shrinkage of the filler material and to maintain a tight contact between the adjacent teeth.
Small wooden wedges often are used in conjunction with a matrix foil of some type to seal the gingival portion of the preparation. The matrix foil is used to restore the contour of the tooth to that which existed prior to the decay. Known devices which separate adjacent teeth apply pressure to the matrix foil between the adjacent teeth and hold the wooden wedge in place to seal the gingival margin of the preparation. This allows for temporarily separating or creating a greater space between the adjacent teeth which in turn allows for placement of the filler material. When the separators are removed the teeth return to their previous position. However because of the space created by the separators and the filler material that is placed on the tooth, a tight contact between the adjacent teeth should exist after the dental procedure is completed even if there previously had not been tight contact prior to the commencement of the procedure.
Known devices for temporarily separating adjacent teeth include dental rings. A dental ring is a metal device having a generally circular, open-ended shape with a flange at each end of the ring. A pair of manual forceps is used to grasp the ring and force it open thus spreading apart the flanges. The ring is then positioned around one of the two adjacent teeth with the forceps, and when the forceps are released, the flanges act to separate the teeth. However dental rings have disadvantages in that they and the forceps can be clumsy to work with, and a dentist's vision sometimes can be blocked when placing a ring around a tooth in certain locations in a patient's mouth. Also it sometimes happens that while being inserted into a patient's mouth, the forceps lose their grip on the rings which results in the rings snapping away from the forceps and lodging at unintended locations in the mouth. Also certain types of rings cannot be used with certain matrices, such as the Tofflemire matrix system, due to the interference of these rings with these matrices.